Sunrise in Oxnard

Kneeling outside the right-field fence, Matt Pesso peered through the chain link and watched the Pacific Suns loiter around the dugout.

“They’ve been doing that all morning,” Pesso said. “That’s the life of major leaguers, I guess.”

More like minor leaguers without better opportunities. But professional ballplayers, yes, the Suns are that, and they open their first season Saturday night at Oxnard College at 6:05 p.m. against the Sonoma County Crushers.

Provided light standards are erected in time.

And electricity and phone lines are up and running.

And deep trenches along the warning tracks are filled in.

Pesso and some of his Oxnard College teammates were called out this week to grab shovels and do the dirty work while the Suns meandered through a midday workout.

Oxnard Coach Pat Woods is all for the Suns squatting at his stadium for the summer because of the renovations, including grandstands, a press box, a refurbished scoreboard and field improvements.

Supervising the activity is Suns’ President Don DiCarlo, who has worked for two years to bring pro baseball to Ventura County. It’s finally coming together. With barely a minute to spare.

“We’ll make it by 24 hours,” he said. “Then we can sleep Friday night.

“This is like being in a war. Nobody cares about the battles, just who wins. On opening day, we will have won. Ventura County will have a professional sports franchise and all the trouble will have been worth it.”

Wearing a shirt and tie with a cell phone glued to his ear, DiCarlo stood on the field directing more action than an air traffic controller. Today, while the stadium literally is being assembled, he will be introducing the players to community leaders at a luncheon.

He will explain that the Suns are an independent team, unaffiliated with a major league franchise, playing in the 4-year-old Western League against teams from Mission Viejo to Grays Harbor, Wash.

He will mention some of the team’s promotions such as young fans racing mascot “Sunny the Penguin” around the bases, $3 haircut night, tire rolling races and anything else that might brings fans to the stands.

Almost anything, anyway.

DiCarlo was a minority owner of the Palm Springs Suns in 1995 and ’96 and the team gained wide attention for risque promotions, including a proposed “nude night.” It never came off, so to speak, and DiCarlo gives assurances that Suns’ promotions will be more traditional.

The team itself should be enough to fill at least a portion of the 3,200 seats. The roster is full of players with backgrounds ranging from the impressive to the oddball, beginning with opening-day starter Eric King.

A right-handed pitcher who won 54 games in seven seasons with the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers before hanging it up in 1992, King, 34, was living in Oxnard with his wife and 5-year-old son and doing a lot of deep-sea fishing when the Suns set up shop.

“I worked out for about eight weeks prior to the Suns’ tryout,” King said. “I’ve been pitching all my life and I missed it. Unless physically you are unable to do it, you don’t lose it.”

King, who played at Royal High and Moorpark College, is one of several players with local ties whose careers are being resuscitated.

Left-hander Dennis Moeller, 30, came out of Cleveland High and Valley College and pitched briefly with the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates in the early ‘90s. He was released by the Dodgers in 1995.

Tighe Curran, another left-hander, pitched in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization for three years after helping the Newbury Oaks American Legion team win a national championship in 1992.

Released by the Cardinals in ‘95, Curran joined the Santa Maria Indians and pitched in two National Baseball Congress World Series. Lately, he’s pitched on a men’s team in Thousand Oaks.

Making the Suns’ roster has Curran raising his sights.

“I don’t see any reason why, if I get it together, I can’t move back up the ladder,” he said. “If I bust my tail and add a mile or two on my fastball, I can get there.”

Half a dozen players from the Dominican Republic were brought in by Frank Valdez, 29, who wears the dual hats of director of player procurement and starting third baseman. A few, such as second baseman Raphael Ozuna, hope to use the Suns as a springboard into a major league organization.

Sun Manager Jim Derrington is in less of a hurry. While his players stretch on the field, he sits in the dugout chain-smoking and spinning stories like some sort of ballyard bard.

Derrington, 58, has been in and out of pro ball since he was signed as a pitcher in 1956 at the age of 16. His last managed in the Big South League, another in the growing list of independent circuits.

“Independent baseball isn’t like the Cal League where all the players are kids trying to develop,” he said. “Winning is secondary to player development everywhere but in the major leagues and the independent leagues. We are fun to watch because we are trying to win.”

The biggest names in the league are the managers. Dick Dietz of the Crushers, Wally Backman of the Bend Bandits, Buck Rodgers of the Mission Viejo Vigilantes, Bill Plummer of the Chico Heat and Charley Kerfeld of the Grays Harbor Gulls are former major leaguers.

“Those guys don’t want to be part of a clown league,” Derrington said. “This league and the Northern League are the top two independent leagues. It’s as simple as that.”

Folks in Ventura County can evaluate the quality themselves Saturday. Tickets range from $3.50 to $7.50 and about 650 season tickets have been sold.

There are seats behind the backstop typical of a high school or college field in addition to grandstands down each foul line that are 12 feet closer to the field than the dugouts. They are so close that signs warn, “Beware of thrown or batted balls.”

Less fan-friendly are a forlorn set of rusted steel stands beyond the right-field fence next to the foul pole. If those seats are filled on the frequent cool, windy Oxnard evenings, DiCarlo and General Manager Mike Begley will rival Bill Veeck as marketing geniuses.

“I feel there is a ‘show me’ attitude among people,” Derrington said. “They are glad we are here. They are looking forward to it. They just don’t know what they are getting yet.”